Doe Run has submitted its application to permanently divert the West Fork of the Black River in Reynolds County, Missouri. Submit public comments by COB on Thursday, April 15 to Army Corps of Engineers contact in charge of the application, Cynthia Blansett, at Cynthia.W.Blansett@usace.army.mil.

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Several sinkholes have appeared near the West Fork of the Black River in Reynolds County in southeastern Missouri beginning in spring of 2014 with consequences for the river and the surrounding land. As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,the sinkholes developed above an underground lead mine operated by the Doe Run Company. The first two of six known sinkholes, discovered near the toe of the mine’s main tailings dam, were between 30 and 60 feet in diameter and about 18 feet deep.

According to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration report, these sinkhole developed shortly after Doe Run removed some of the pillars supporting the mine roof in the vicinity of an unused ventilation shaft, causing the roof to collapse and the ground above the mine to subside. The roof collapse and associated subsidence also led to the inflow of thousands of gallons of water per minute from the West Fork Black River into the mine and to an increase in the discharge of contaminants into the river as the company pumped the water out of the mine.

In an effort to stop the mine flooding, prevent additional contamination of the river, and halt further sinkhole development, in June 2014, Doe Run applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for an emergency permit – issued without notice to the public – which allowed Doe Run to divert the flow of the West Fork Black River into an artificially constructed channel temporarily. The artificial channel is lined with rock and black geotextile material and is nearly 1,300 feet long. The state certified that the project would not adversely impact water quality on June 25, 2014.

It now appears that Doe Run plans to make the river diversion permanent. An August 26, 2015 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article noted that Doe Run and the Corps were “in talks” to see about making the diversion permanent but that “nothing official” had been filed. MCE has since obtained documents through the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) including an application, dated September 3, 2015, requesting the “permanent use of the West Fork Diversion.” The Corps’ file also includes a letter, dated August 10, 2015, by Golder (Doe Run’s consultant) explaining Doe Run’s rationale for wanting to make the diversion permanent.… Read the rest

Controlling flood risk requires common sense placement and maintenance of agricultural levees and limits on development in the natural floodplain. The recent decision in federal claims court in Ideker Farms et. al v. United States came as a blow to restoration advocates who disagree with the plaintiffs’ claim that the Corps’ restoration efforts on the Missouri River caused them to experience flood damages. The judge ruled that damages occurred across four states – Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, but a second trial will begin in October to determine the dollar amount of those impacts. The lawsuit was filed in 2014 and alleged that the restoration efforts as part of the Missouri River Recovery Program were responsible for private flooding and ultimately, a “takings” of private property.

In fact, it was the failure to complete the 1944 Pick Sloan plan which is responsible for much of today’s lower river woes. The Pick Sloan plan is best known for the huge upper Missouri River reservoirs built under its guidance. However, the plan had a critical lower river component calling for levee setbacks which was never fully completed. If the plan had been followed, the river would have had room to expand during natural flood pulses and flooding along the river would be substantially reduced. Instead, the Missouri River floods even worse than before the river was altered and we’ve lost the ecosystem services that a natural river system provides us, such as flood storage, water filtration, wildlife habitat, and recreation.

The Corps, through the Bank Stabilization and Navigation Program, heavily altered the Missouri River to facilitate farming in the floodplains’ legacy rich soils and to create a barge channel which, while built, has never carried much traffic. These changes destroyed much of the natural habitat for endangered species including the Pallid Sturgeon, Least Tern, and Piping Plover as well as for other aquatic and floodplain ecosystem critters. The alterations disconnected the river from its floodplain ultimately giving these landowners adjacent to the river free land, that land used to be floodplain and even the river itself in some cases. Now, the landowners want to maintain their access to it on the taxpayers’ dime even as it costs the public financially and in the loss of environmental benefits a functioning, healthy river system provides.… Read the rest

Opposing any regulation that may cut into its profits,the industrial meat production sector has a disturbingly close tie to the public commission that oversees water protections in Missouri. The factory farm lobby has focused its efforts on compromising our state Clean Water Commission which certifies the industry’s permits. A new state law has removed the legal requirement for public representation on the commission. This new law works to ensure cheap meat profits at the expense of our natural resources, public health, and rural economies.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs are encolosed warehouse-type structures or barns in which animals are bred and contained while they produce dairy and eggs or until slaughter for meat. Learn about the harms of these massive livestock operations to public health, the environment, animal welfare, and our rural economies on MCE’s website or from our friends at the Missouri Rural Crisis Center. We connect the dots in the timeline image below and in our June 2016 Clean Water Reflections blog piece.

Corporate factory farm interests have pushed through state legislation (HB 1713) that removes required public representation on the Clean Water Commission (CWC). Governor Greitens has the ability to select public representatives over special interests. Your calls make a difference.Take Action here!

What is the Clean Water Commission?

The Clean Water Commission is a seven-member citizens’ board appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. Its responsibilities include prevention and control of potential sources of pollution, the enforcement of the federal Clean Water Act, and the certification of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), or Factory Farms as they are commonly known. There is likely a CAFO closer to your home than you think. Check out our interactive map of factory farms in Missouri and Illinois to explore the growing factory farm landscape in our region. Read Clean Water Reflections blog post from June 2016 detailing the events leading up to the dismantling of public representation on our state Clean Water Commission.

MCE’s Interactive CAFO Map

HB 1713 Timeline

Until 2016, it was mandatory for the public to hold the majority of the seats on the Commission, not special interests.

The timeline conveys the strategic and retaliatory CAFO industry assault on the CWC through the series of events in 2016. MCE’s Clean Water Reflections blog covered the details of the saga in an article written immediately following the 2016 legislative session.

Federal attempts to undermine commonsense policy would repeal the clean water protections established in 2015 by the EPA and Corps to protect Missouri wetlands and source drinking water. Our own Missouri senator, Claire McCaskill supports rescinding the rule. Call or write Senator McCaskill to let her know, now more than ever, we need her to put the public above special interests and support the Clean Water Rule and EPA in its work to protect our waters.

The Trump Administration has started the process to repeal the Clean Water Protection Rule, often called “WOTUS” in reference to its attempt to clarify what constitutes a “water of the U.S.” under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The rule, finalized by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2015 after considering feedback from over 400 public meetings and more than 1,000,000 public comment letters, has been targeted for repeal by polluters. As part of the Administration’s attempts to undermine environmental protections and the EPA, the agencies have proposed to rescind the rule.

By clearly spelling out what constitutes “Waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act, the rule provides clarity, efficiency, and cleaner water by better defining which rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands the Act protects while maintaining existing agricultural exemptions. The rule provides certainty regarding who is regulated for pollution controls and who is not. It is based on a vast body of scientific literature that recognizes the vital connections between smaller streams and wetlands and downstream waters. It also presents the opportunity to tell the agencies to fully protect waters that are often wrongly written off as “isolated,” but that science shows provide important functions.

Farms across the Corn Belt are suffering major crop losses due to pesticide drift from a potent herbicide called Dicamba (see EPA fact sheet here), and Missouri is no exception. Dicamba is a pesticide used to control broadleaf plants, and is applied to Dicamba-tolerant seeds, and they must be used together. Monsanto sells both the Dicamba-tolerant seed and the pesticide, so farmers must buy both from the company, allowing Monsanto to dominate the market. It can drift through wind (airborne) to non-tolerant seeds on different farms and can be incredibly destructive to these crops.

Over 161 Missouri farmers have reported complaints related to Dicamba-drift this year.

Dicamba’s chemical makeup.

In response to the numerous complaints, Missouri Department of Agriculture banned the sale and use of Dicamba temporarily on July 7th, joining our neighboring state of Arkansas which banned it earlier in the month. Among others, the Missouri Farm Bureau supported the decision. The ban was lifted last week, on July 17th, after new regulations were put in place to minimize the risk of drift. These regulations will be in effect until December of 2017, so they will last throughout the rest of the growing season. Farmers who want to use Dicamba must apply the pesticide between 9:00am-3:00pm, not apply if wind speeds are greater than 10 mph, must be using a certified applicator, and must fill out a “Dicamba notice of Application Form.” The form is on Missouri Department of Agriculture’s website, and must be filled out 24 hours prior to application. [2]

The new regulations for spraying Dicamba.

Monsanto, Dicamba’s producer, has responded to the complaints of Dicamba misuse in various statements since Arkansas announced a ban earlier this month. The company referred to Arkansas’s ban as “premature,” stating, “We sympathize with any farmers experiencing crop injury, but the decision to ban dicamba in Arkansas was premature since the causes of any crop injury have not been fully investigated.” [3] Monsanto suggested that further investigation could reveal a different cause of injury to plants, rather than their pesticide, and their chief technology officer stated, “There is clear symptomatology (of damage) in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri,” says Fraley. “I understand why those farmers are frustrated and looking at answers. Leaf cupping is caused by variety of actors, (such as) weather, disease, certain environments, and a variety of crop protection products like dicamba.… Read the rest

Following numerous continuing resolutions, in early May, Congress finally agreed on a budget package for Fiscal Year 2017. The budget agreement contained numerous wins for sustainable agriculture and the programs that support conservation practices that are so important to protecting and restoring Missouri soil and water quality. Congress’ ability to reach consensus on conservation support despite the current anti-spending focus in DC speaks to the bi-partisan and cross-sector support for the preservation of our natural resources intricately tied to land use and agricultural production. Prior to the budget consensus, MCE conducted direct outreach to Missouri senators and representatives urging their support for conservation programs. This outreach included sending an appropriations request to Senator Blunt who serves on the Senate Agricultural Appropriations Committee. Additionally, along with over 200 allies, MCE sent a letter to Congressional appropriators calling for full funding for programs like CSP, EQIP, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. Following the good news that Congress reached consensus on an omnibus budget package for FY17 which largely protected conservation funds, MCE, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and a plethora of conservation groups formally expressed our appreciation in a follow up “thank you” letter to congressional appropriators while urging the same commitment to natural resources and agricultural land stewardship in the months and years to come. While funding levels for many important programs were preserved this time, we face a challenging road to maintain conservation supports in FY18 and the next Farm Bill.

Hart Beet Farm in Eolia, Missouri has installed a High Tunnel facility for produce production through a Farm Bill EQIP contract.

MCE and allies throughout the Mississippi River basin were relieved to know that the funds that support land stewardship and improve soil and water health in our state and region will continue to be available for the remainder of the fiscal year. Some highlights of MCE priority programs from the budget package follow.

CSP PROTECTED

The Conservation Stewardship Program offsets costs to farmers for implementing advanced conservation best management practices on their productive farmland. CSP avoided cuts to funding over 10 million acres of enrolled land across the US. Missouri landowners are enrolled in over 3,000 CSP contracts which predominantly support cropland and livestock environmental enhancement practices.

EQIP CUTS

Despite the general good news, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program suffered an 11% or $181 million reduction in funding for FY17.… Read the rest

6/6/17 UPDATE: On Friday, December 23, we received notice that the City of Chesterfield applied to overdevelop even more of the floodplain they should have never paved in the first place. The timeline for comments was excessively short given the holiday. On June 6, 2017, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the City of Chesterfield voided a contract to build a 74-acre development of indoor sports domes. The project would have included basketball and volleyball courts, indoor softball, and little league fields as well as substantial office space, large education center, and hotel. While the news article focuses on the proposed projects economic downfalls and political complications concerning the land ownership, developing a massive impervious project in the floodplain would have been an environmentally-disastrous endeavor. MCE is pleased with the City’s decision to halt the foolish sports complex project. However, the City remains woefully out of compliance with its mitigation requirements (see blog post from February 2016 below) for prior wetland destruction. Previous taxpayer-funded development filled 80-85 acres of wetlands in the Missouri River floodplain on land that will certainly flood again and again, will require public resources to alleviate those flood damages.

Below is a blog post on the Chesterfield wetland and floodplain development saga from February 2016:

by Alicia Claire Lloyd

2/2/2016

Spurred by tax incentives, Chesterfield, one of St. Louis’ westernmost suburbs, has grown to be a retail mega development. With Chesterfield Commons, a massive, 1.2 million square foot mega retail complex over a mile long – the longest strip mall in the country, on the south side of Interstate 64 and an outdoor outlet mall on the north side, retail establishments have pushed the bounds and developed floodplain land cover right up to the Missouri River.

What was that floodplain land before it was a retail paradise? A substantial amount of the floodplain contained wetlands that had to be filled in with sediment and paved over before development. Wetlands hold flood waters during extreme events such as the flood of 1993.

Satellite image of Missouri River during Great Flood of 1993. By National Weather Service: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

In 1993, the Chesterfield Valley was completely inundated as the Missouri River topped the 100 year levee designed to hold the river in its banks. Subsidized by tax dollars, 160 of the 240 businesses located in the valley returned.… Read the rest

New Report Reveals Most States Failing to Manage Nitrogen & Phosphorus Pollution

by Alicia Claire Lloyd, Clean Water Policy Coordinator

Nutrient pollution threatens drinking water sources and ecological function in freshwater rivers, streams, and lakes in Missouri and throughout the Mississippi River basin. Missouri ranks among the top four leading state contributors of nutrient pollution (2nd for phosphorous and 4th for nitrogen) to the Mississippi River that makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone. As part of the Mississippi River Collaborative, a partnership of 13 environmental and legal groups, MCE supports efforts to reduce nutrient pollution inundating our waters.

The Collaborative released a report today, calling for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to perform its duties under the Clean Water Act and compel states along the Mississippi River to take specific actions to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution flowing into the River and the Gulf. This report comes just weeks after the Iowa Environmental Council’s release of a research report discussing the health effects of nitrates in drinking water.

Source: USEPA, Fish Kill Due to an Algae Bloom

MRC’s basinwide call for nutrient pollution reduction action stems from an in-depth report revealing how the 10 states bordering the Mississippi River are not achieving nutrient reductions on their own. These reductions are necessary to protect the drinking water of millions of Americans and safeguard healthy ecosystems in their waterways. Nutrient pollution stems from multiple sources including soil and fertilizer in runoff from farms, discharges from wastewater treatment facilities, and fertilizer runoff from lawns and gardens in urban areas.

The biggest contributors to nutrient pollution are the fertilizers and manure which are over-applied to farm fields, suburban yards and golf courses, which are carried into the nearest river or stream by rain and snow melt. These conditions are exacerbated when the cropping systems are unvaried, such as only growing corn and soybean which are unable to absorb the amount of chemicals applied to the land, as well as when there are no sustainable practices used to collect some of the pollution before it gets to the nearest water source.

Missourians have lost up to a startling 87 percent of our state’s historic wetlands—one of the most productive and diverse ecosystems in the world. Wetlands are vibrant and fascinating ecological communities with unique soils that support vegetation adapted to wet conditions. In Missouri, wetland, such as swamps, marshes, and wet meadows serve critical natural functions for humans and wildlife alike. These waters were drained and filled en masse in the 1800s and early 1900s. Their conversion has continued incrementally over more recent decades with the expansion of suburban sprawl from city centers, the mass construction of levee and navigation systems severing rivers from their floodplains, and the intensification of industrial agricultural production.

Missouri Department of Natural Resources reports suggest about half of Missouri’s original 4.8 million acres of wetlands were located in the now heavily agricultural southeast Bootheel region and 3.6 million acres–or 87 percent of all destroyed wetlands–were lost to agricultural drainage. As the private gains from development and agribusiness accrue unchallenged and the importance of wetland and floodplain ecosystems is ignored, the public loses the value of these critical natural resources.

Government policy seeks to shape behavior, often by attaching carrots or sticks to specific choices. Cigarette taxes are meant to discourage smoking. We pay tickets as penalty for violating parking rules. Similarly, environmental policy uses permits and fines to discourage polluters or offers rewards for stewardship. Policies managing wetlands in Missouri are based primarily on federal regulation requiring developers to first apply for a permit to develop or convert wetland acreage to another land use, depriving others of their communal benefits. Permittees then incur some cost to compensate the public for permitted damages to wetland resources by mitigating the damages elsewhere.

Missouri Marshland (Photo Credit: WikiCommons)

Section 404 of the federal Clean Water Act prohibits unpermitted “discharge of fill material” into waters of the United States on public or private lands. The US Army Corps of Engineers implements the 404 program and requires developers to mitigate permitted impacts to wetland and stream resources by purchasing credits from an approved wetland mitigation bank or restoring wetlands elsewhere themselves. The goal of the 404 program was to achieve “no net loss” of the state’s remaining wetland resource base by 1995. MCE and other organizations in the Mississippi River Collaborative work to watchdog this process and to advocate for quality mitigation activities with real environmental benefits.… Read the rest

With the adoption of Senate Amendment 1 to House Bill 1713, followed closely by the passing of the bill, the future of the Clean Water Commission rests with Gov. Jay Nixon. Without his veto, the Clean Water Commission will be stripped of its capacity to fairly represent Missourians’ rights to clean water. The amendment seeks to remove the criterion that limits the number of industrial agriculture, industry, or mining representatives to two of the seven seats—while also eliminating the mandate that four of the seats be occupied by representatives for the people of Missouri. With this change, the balance of power will be shifted away from all Missourians who rely on effective polluter oversight to access clean water for drinking and recreating in favor of the very industries the Commission regulates. See media coverage of the bill’s implications on St. Louis Public Radio and the Columbia Daily Tribune.

The Clean Water Commission holds the authority in Missouri to implement the federal Clean Water Act and Missouri Clean Water Law. Its responsibilities include prevention and control of potential sources of pollution, the development of Water Quality Standards, the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, and the certification of wastewater treatment facilities and large-scale Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The current makeup of its seven members is designed to allow for the input of industry representatives, but requires four members who represent the public and the best interests of Missourians. If HB1713 becomes law, it will pave the way for a Commission with zero public members.

Recent decisions by the Commission upset some members of the agricultural sector and, as a result, we are witnessing this attempt on the regulatory authority. An article from the Columbia Tribune descries how five hundred and twenty-one permits have been brought before the Commission and of them only two have been challenged. Of those two lonesome permits, only one for a CAFO near Trenton was denied. The basis of the rejection rested on the fact that it would be located in a 100-year flood plain and that there were doubts as to the capacity of the permit applicants to act as a “continuing authority” that would be responsible for permanent maintenance and modernization of the operation. Without the requirement to reasonably prove this capacity, we run the risk of operations like the one proposed in Trenton going awry and our waters being polluted with tons of manure while these shell corporations shrug their shoulders and avoid their responsibility to clean up the spill. … Read the rest